The Soul Project
by Maniacal Dragon
Summary: After another fit of insanity Nny awakens in a strange place, where something dark and sinister is in progress... story is finished, and I re-uploaded everything to fix the elliptical dots problem!
1. The Soul Project - The Discovery

He had a dream that he saw a unicorn. White, with a flowing mane and tail, and polished hooves that made no sound on the waving grass. A sparkling white horn was upon his forehead, and his head was held high, gazing off into the pine trees. He was searching for something. Sometimes he'd seem to find it, but he'd come away disappointed… eventually the beast disappeared into the mists of restless sleep.  
  
He woke shivering. There was an awful chill to the air, and Johnny wrapped his arms around his thin form, attempting to preserve some of his heat. Plenty of light streamed in through the barred door and window… wait… the what?  
  
Nny struggled to his feet, his arms still locked tightly around his body. He didn't remember this, not any of it. But it was so cold… everything else he could remember was a confused jumble of images, feelings, and sounds. He remembered seeing things that he couldn't possibly have seen. He remembered things happening that could not happen. He remembered them happening over and over again… he remembered Squee. Poor little Squee, they'd been taking him away, but they flew at Nny on vaguely insectoid wings and tried to kill him when he'd run after them. He remembered they had no heads. He remembered a lot of things… he remembered Squee turning into some… Nny pushed the thought from his mind. Sometimes these things happened to him. Sometimes he remembered things that he shouldn't, and all of it was so confused he just dismissed it. Things like that happened, when your mind was hurting and sick…  
  
Nny sat back on the hard wooden bench attached to the wall at the back of the stone cell. For a cell it was, with icy drafts pushing roughly inside every few seconds, battling with the snatches of warm air that remained for supremacy. Perhaps cynically, Johnny enjoyed the cold. It numbed him, gave him some semblance of un-humanness. But where was he? The daylight streaming in through those windows began to hurt his eyes after a while. He wanted to get out of here, and he stood, starting to pace back and forth, his figure hunched and his tread silent, like some mindless, caged animal…  
  
  
  
The hollow staccato of Jason Cross's boots rang emptily in the stone halls. In his opinion, they needed something… anything… to deaden the sounds. The idea, of course, was to prevent anyone sneaking in, though it was not the best and certainly not the only security measure. Despite this, they'd already found four intruders this month and security was on edge. The directing board was ready to pounce on anything or anyone that looked suspicious. Jason Cross kept his eyes straight ahead and his gait purposeful; his military-style hair, neat clean jeans, and uniform jacket would refute suspicion.  
  
He'd written a report on the last intruder and received a summons about it. He was not unduly nervous; it had not been a routine intruder and he'd been as brief as he could. Somehow it was embarrassing, that one knife-wielding psycho had managed to get as far inside as he did. Most people expected an intruder to be as devious and careful as possible.  
  
  
  
One of the doctors was there, waiting for him. They called them 'doctors' although they were more or less metaphysical specialists and did the major work in occult and magick. They didn't dress like doctors. Long gray and black robes were their garb, and some of them wore charms or jewelry.  
  
"Jason Cross." A low voice made Jason jump, and he turned quickly as he stepped inside, searching for the source of the voice. The doctor stepped out of the shadows. Dressed in a dark grey robe that flowed down his frail body to brush the stone floor, the man was old and balding, with a thin smirk and a strange, cold glint in his eyes.  
  
"Sir?"  
  
"This… intruder," the doctor said. The man did not bother to divulge his name; security personnel weren't so privileged as to be worth that formality. The doctor held up a carbon copy of the report Jason had written. "Do you think he may be a special kind of soul? Perhaps one with a malady or old scars…"  
  
"I don't know, sir," Jason said, as respectfully as possible. He kept his eyes trained on the doctor's face, resisting the urge to glance fearfully around the dark room. Everything about this soul stuff unnerved him… but his job paid exceptionally well, had excellent health and personal benefits, and he was more of the type to just do as he was told and not question what his superiors were up to. Alls he knew was that they were raising the dead. Or trying to. Everything was so top-secret, no one knew if they'd actually succeeded yet. They weren't trying to animate the dead… oh no. They were trying to recall the souls of the dead.  
  
"It would be interesting… to see the antics of a diseased soul, don't you think, Jason?" Jason did not respond.  
  
  
  
After several long minutes of pacing, Johnny sat down again. With returning sanity, and the biting cold, came increasing clarity of thought, and Nny was slowly realizing the dire situation he was trapped in. No matter that he had no clue where he was or why he was here. The fact that he was in a cell divined that someone had put him here. The fact that his needs had not been provided for told him that whoever had put him here did not intend him to live long.  
  
Slowly Nny's fingers went to the top of his long boots. He touched the handle of the knife that he always kept hidden there. As if on cue, he heard the heavy thudding of booted feet echoing through the stone hallway. His thin fingers, numbed with cold, tightened around the knife, and Johnny slipped down to the floor, crouching by the door as the footsteps approached.  
  
But they went right by. Johnny did not relax, but remained there, the cold numbing his limbs. A sharp ache spread through his legs after a while from the uncomfortable position, but Nny dared not break it. It seemed hours before he heard the sound of footsteps again. This time, they slowed and stopped by his cell. A wary looking man, dressed in a uniform black jacket and a pair of jeans, entered after the muzzle of his pistol. Johnny tried to lunge forward, but the stiffness of his limbs betrayed him and he fell, the knife clattering across the stone floor of the cell. In another moment he was laying there, the cold barrel of the man's gun pressed into his temple. Johnny barely felt it.  
  
  
  
Jason gazed down at the knife for a moment, as it lay hidden in a shadow against the wall. It was small, compared to the half-sword this man had been brandishing when he came in. Jason ignored the cold sweat that had beaded on his forehead. Thank God they kept these cells so drafty… from the look of it, the man had been too numb with the cold to make a successful attack. For a fleeting moment, Jason almost felt sorry for this one. He looked absolutely wretched. He was painfully thin, with sickly- yellow skin, a shock of tangled, medium-length black hair, and crazed, watery eyes. The clothes he was wearing were not enough to protect him from the cold, and his flesh was pale with the chill.  
  
"Stand up," Jason said. The man did so. His eyes were shifty, taking everything in around him, as he walked before Jason into the hall. Jason noted with amazement that the man's tread was silent as a panther, even inside this empty stone hallway. At times, Jason felt sorry for prisoners, even intruders. At one time in his life he'd been a respectable and God-fearing man, but that was behind him now. And he could not now bring himself to feel sorry for this man. He was afraid of him; he was too silent, too deadly, too crazed… when several hours before he'd been an incoherent, screaming blur of a figure, his knife glinting with the blood of three slain guards.  
  
"What is your name?" Jason asked the man. One current theory among the doctors was that knowing something's name gave you power over it to some extent. It couldn't hurt to hold that over this one's head…  
  
"Johnny C," the man replied. His voice was as cold and distant as his demeanor, but there was a glint in his eye, a glint like a warm fire in the middle of an iced, moonless night. And it was not a nice fire. It was the wrong color, it did strange things… it was what you wanted to hide in the shadows from, and hope that when it passed from view it wasn't gazing your way…  
  
Somehow, Jason did not feel any more powerful for owning this man's name.  
  
  
  
Johnny wished he'd had a knife in his other boot. There was little chance of him downing an armed man without a weapon. He was fast, but he was not strong, and he needed a blade to add the convincing argument to his attack. Johnny wondered briefly if this man was carrying a knife, but he knew he probably wouldn't live long enough to find out should he decided to pursue the matter. Not with that gun barrel jammed in between his shoulder blades. Johnny hated it. He wanted to turn and tear it from the man's grip, break it into six pieces and shove them all, one by one, down the man's throat. It was a tempting thought, but Nny was not under the delusion that he could pull it off. He wanted to live for the moment. And he had a bad feeling about this place… it felt cold and ugly, even without the persuasion of the constant drafty winds, and Johnny didn't think this would be a good place to die in.  
  
  
  
Dr. Anthony Kasavin leaned back into the chair, a sigh falling from his lips. The chair was hard and uncomfortable, but Anthony had long since stopped noticing it. Along with the feeling of power that came with what he did, came a surety of character and motive. He knew he was, he knew what he could do, and he knew he was doing right. People would pay money… a lot of money, to have dead loved ones back. With a low chuckle, Anthony thanked science and the fanatic Christians once again for the way they had molded the ignorant populace. Science had taught them that the metaphysical and the magickal were legend and fantasy. Christianity had taught them that they had one life, one chance, and one ending. Only one. That, of course, was not true… Anthony knew from experience and from many discussions with otherworldly beings that the soul did not live one life, and that the dead were not really dead. They had only moved on.  
  
But America did not have to know this. They could continue to believe that death was death, that it was the end of the only life they would ever live, and that if their loved ones died they would never see them again. And not only America, but also the world… once this research paid off. Once these tedious, wearing experiments paid off, once the doctors learned everything they needed to know about reviving a soul; then their work with the public could begin.  
  
  
  
Dr. Kasavin heard the footsteps in the hallway. Only one pair; the doctor frowned. He knew there were two people approaching, but not being able to hear one of them was disturbing. One thin hand gestured ever so slightly, and the air wrinkled around it. A pair of glowing eyes, visible only to the psychic mind, peered eagerly towards the door. This was one of the spirits Dr. Kasavin used as a familiar, to focus the energy he needed. Of course it obeyed him, he was too powerful for it to have a choice.  
  
The door opened, and Jason Cross pushed a man into the room at gunpoint. He was an extremely thin and ill-looking fellow, with large, suspicious eyes that could not stay still on one object for very long. Extending just a touch of power, Dr. Kasavin felt the painful writhing of the man's soul inside of his body. There was something dark concentrated here. Dr. Kasavin knew plenty about negative energy and how it worked, and he could swear this man inadvertently sucked it in. No wonder he was insane. This would definitely be… an educational experience.  
  
"Did he give you a name, Jason?" The doctor asked the security official.  
  
"Johnny C."  
  
"Thank you, Jason. Leave us."  
  
The security head quickly left, and Dr. Kasavin turned to his new charge. "Now, my boy," he said softly, placing the tips of his fingers together. The elemental at his side began to eagerly circle the man, reaching out to poke at him with strands of negative energy that, to its surprise, got pulled down into the center of Johnny's being. Dr. Kasavin made a sharp jab of thought at the creature, which retreated. Johnny was noticeably shivering with the sudden influx of negativity.  
  
"My dear boy," Dr. Kasavin said dryly. "I don't know if you know it, but you are a black hole for negativity. You must have an awful time of it, hmm?"  
  
  
  
Johnny said nothing; he only gazed coldly at the man. From the second he had walked in the door he hadn't liked this guy. It almost seemed like he could be the center of the ugly feeling that radiated all throughout this place. And why had they built it looking like a medieval castle? Something to do with this idiotic Harry Potter wannabe? And whatever that thing was that had been here a moment ago. He hadn't seen anything, but he'd felt something like an oppressive cloud, drawing closer and closer. It had been building up inside him, and he could barely keep his mind on the situation at hand.  
  
Yes, Nny well knew that he was a 'black hole' for negativity, in a manner of speaking. He drew bad energy. There was so much of it nowadays, with all the idiocy and ugliness of humankind that it had to go somewhere to maintain the natural balance of energy on Earth. That somewhere was people like Johnny. He wasn't sure he really understood it; but that did not belie the fact that it was there.  
  
He needed to get out of here. Now. It hit him with a certainty he'd not felt in years, and he shuddered with fear.  
  
  
  
Dr. Kasavin stood up and walked over to Johnny. He could feel the boy's fear hammering at his mind. Yes, despite the fact that this intruder was a full-grown man, the doctor was already considering him a boy. That was true of most of his 'patients'. In fact, it was true of most humans on Earth. They were children, all of them. They were ignorant, blind things that lived out their simplistic lives, begging to be taken advantage of. There was no need for violence, or for comfort, or for emotion. There was only the need to keep the body alive to contain the mind. It was the mind that was important, that held the power. It was the mind that could accomplish anything.  
  
"Don't be afraid." Dr. Kasavin's voiced pitched lower, softer. "You're going to help me learn, so that I can better help people. Don't you have a family?" The doctor said this last with a wry smirk to himself. He severely doubted this insane young man had anyone but himself in his life.  
  
The boy was backing up, his thin form shaking badly now. Dr. Kasavin's eyes narrowed a bit; why was the figure so shadowy? As if there were a fog, or something, clouding not only his vision, but his psychic sense as well. This wasn't right, and Dr. Kasavin didn't like it. He had long ago learned to be wary of anything he did not fully understand and know all sides to. He heard the elemental at his side making strange noises, something like growls, now like screams. And then he felt its energy dissipate. And still, he could not fully see Johnny before him. This was not the boy's doing. He had searched this human full over with his own psychic senses, and he did not have this kind of power. No, this was a power beyond a mere human's.  
  
There was nothing he saw, but Dr. Kasavin felt a swirl of power, and when everything was sharp and clear again as he liked it, the elemental was gone, and so was the boy.  
  
  
  
Johnny felt himself pressed tightly to something that moved and flowed underneath him. His hands grasped handfuls of some silky, threadlike material, and warmth spread throughout his cold body. When he opened his eyes, all of that was gone, and he was standing on a spiral staircase inside of a tower, leaning against the cold, stony wall. How had he gotten here? He realized that the man in the room he'd been in was gone, and relief gripped his tense muscles so suddenly that he collapsed. He heard the angry blaring of an alarm in the distance, and he thought of his knife. He knew he couldn't fight somebody like that with a knife, but those ordinary people in the jackets, they would do fine by a knife. Johnny struggled to his feet, and finding a doorway in the side of the tower, opened it cautiously.  
  
He was in luck; it was indeed the hallway his cell had been on, and there was no one there. Some of the cells were open, some closed, and Nny stepped out into the hall. He would feel a little safer, at least, with a knife at hand.  
  
In the hall was the unicorn. The what…? Well, it was horse-like in shape and size, white all over, with a long spiral horn on its forehead and a red-golden streak from its eyes to its nostrils. It looked like the one he'd seen in his dream earlier… but everything had been hazy then, anyway, perhaps it still was. Why had he had to fall asleep? Was it shock? He couldn't even remember how he'd gotten into this place, and he sure should've…  
  
But when he looked at the unicorn, he felt suddenly warmer, and he thought he heard it speaking to him... "Johnny C. They won't catch you again, yet. Get your blade, if you have need of it. Hurry."  
  
Johnny did. Pine wouldn't hurt him. 


	2. The Soul Project - The Unicorn

"Exactly what are you, then?" Johnny stared defiantly up at the being who gazed down at him. The gentle warmth of its gaze was, for some odd reason, infuriating. High on a patrol walk, Nny sat leaning against the low walls, trying to suppress the shivers that wracked his thin frame as icy winds whipped the tops of the castle.  
  
"What do I look like?" the unicorn replied. "I'm what you see. But more than that underneath."  
  
Johnny buried his face in his hands. His spine, curved against the stone, was aching, and Nny turned to the side to relieve the pressure for a moment. He didn't know what this unicorn was, and he didn't want to know. He found himself wanting to go home… but how could he do that? There was no way out of here. The stone walls were reinforced with barbed wire, there were guards crawling everywhere, and alarms blared constantly, only scattered a little by the winds. Yes, they knew he was gone. They were looking for him.  
  
But somehow he knew they wouldn't find him. At least, the guards wouldn't find him. He didn't want those robed bastards after him… Nny wondered again why he'd gotten here... and how. This wasn't anywhere near his home. Nowhere near the town in which he lived. It was much too cold, and there was a fine dusting of snow on the ground constantly. The sun was low in the sky and often blurred out with clouds.  
  
And this creature before him was even harder to explain. Especially in the fact that it was helping him. Johnny knew about unicorns; everyone did, although most dismissed them as myth. Unicorns were pure souls, and there were never exceptions to that; so why would a pure soul be helping a low-down piece of shit like him?  
  
"Pine," Nny said after a moment, his mouth dry. It was almost a struggle to speak.  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"Go away." An ugly feeling was creeping up on Nny and he didn't like it at all. It was the feeling you get when faced with something so beautiful and good that next to it you see yourself as, at best, a despicable bit of garbage. The feeling of gripping the edge of the cloud on which sits the pearly gates of heaven, while your ugly little inner demon pokes and jeers at you before shoving you back down into the stinking pit of the real world.  
  
"I can't leave until this whole 'experiment' is stopped."  
  
"Then get… away… from ME!" Johnny's voice rose into a strangled shout, which he was instantly sorry for. They would find him, now… and Johnny did not see Pine anywhere. The soft, warm presence of the unicorn was gone as well, and Nny felt dreadfully exposed. Slinking low, he crawled as fast as he could towards the steel door in the nearest tower. He held his knife in one hand, and leaning back on his knees, reached cautiously for the handle…  
  
He never got it. The door flew open and an armed guard ran out; and without thinking, almost as a reflex, Nny's knife hand shot out, slashing through the woman's thigh. A scream dropped from her lips as she stumbled, and Johnny lost no time in driving the knife upward through her stomach. Hot blood spurted from the wound as the body crumpled to the stone walkway, and Nny wasted no time darting through the door. Alarms jangled viciously, the shock of the noise making his head ache, but he ignored them, stumbling down the tower stairs. His boots, while not as loud as the ones of the guards, still thudded one the stone stairs with enough noise to make Johnny wince. He tried to slow down, but he was too tense, his breath was coming too fast. He had to find a way out of here, but as he paused a moment at a door in the side of the tower, a sudden feeling of cold fear washed through him.  
  
Trusting his instincts, Johnny turned to continue down the tower stairs, when the door was flung open from the other side. Nny wheeled, the knife in his hand held in a death grip as he swung at the tall, robed figure on the other side. Johnny was a cobra in his element, lightning fast, but his weapon never got to its target. Cold energy seemed to envelop him, whipping at his clothes, tearing at his very soul. Rushing screams and wind filled his ears, and his eyes stung and clouded. He had to close them, and he felt himself falling… something hard struck his side, then his back, and a sharp pain lanced through his body. He thought he screamed, but he couldn't hear past the howls and the wind in his ears.  
  
  
  
Pine was battling one of the elementals. He had not meant to abandon the young human, but when the poor thing had shouted, a wave of frustrated resentment and sorrow had coursed out from him for a bare moment, and it was enough to attract some of the spirits here. It appalled Pine, how one group of humans could pull so many beings from the astral to their aid, and it frightened him.  
  
At any rate, Pine had leapt into the midst of the largest elemental and taken his battle with it to the next realm. The physical plane was no comfortable place to be for an astral creature, not even one so bound as the elemental or so determined as Pine. The battle was ferocious and too long, and while Pine attempted to dissipate the elemental, so it cruelly attempted to obliterate him. The unicorn did not like to fight; but he could do it when he needed and he could do it well. He would've been satisfied with freeing the creature's bond and casting it into some far off part of the realm, but there was something ugly feeding it, and it drove to destroy him. Even when he felt its bond to the physical fall apart, it still pushed on against the unicorn. Did it hate him so much? Why? Pine was forced to do no less than destroy the fact of the being's very existence. It was a terrible thing to do, but in this case it was an unfortunate necessity.  
  
When Pine managed to collect himself enough to project back into the physical plane, he looked immediately for Johnny. He was unsurprised to find that the robed beasts that called themselves 'doctors' had hold of him again… Pine sighed softly. While he needed to save Nny from the certain fate awaiting him, Pine felt a stronger calling of duty to the crying and tortured souls that had been dragged back into bodies long abandoned. No souls, yet, that had been firmly entrenched in a new life and consciousness before being hauled back to their previous selves, but this was just as bad. Once a soul left the body and consciousness, it was gone and to bring it back was wrong… an upset of the natural balance, a perversion of the flow of life.  
  
But for some reason he couldn't quite explain, Pine found himself galloping through the castle, his power and sight stretched far before him. He snatched imprisoned souls and turned them loose as he found them, though he had to stop for a few minutes at each one, but then he continued on his main goal; rescuing his imprisoned human.  
  
  
  
When Johnny awoke, the first thing he saw was the arched ceiling. It was made of stone, or it looked like it was; but he could see the steel bolts reinforcing it in places. It was sharply in clarity, and tiny details kept leaping out at him, forcing him after a while to try and turn his head. The attempt at motion was met by his nerves with a scream of protest, which he vocalized intensely a moment later; made even more intense by a ragged throat and sore vocal chords.  
  
"That won't do you any good, my boy," a familiar, soft voice spoke into Nny's ear. He did not try to jerk away, but he shuddered internally.  
  
"You escaped before." The voice was farther away now, and held a cold edge to it. "I haven't quite figured out how, but it wasn't you. It was something else. What brought you out? I had you, you know. And I still have you. You are mine. And you will be an object of intense experimentation until I have learned all I can from you."  
  
Fear hit Johnny's mind so hard that he reeled. He knew, somehow, that whatever experimentation this insane bastard was talking about, it was not something released by death. Death was part of it, and Nny knew this like a dead, chill weight on his soul. He remembered the unicorn, and how it had left in the face of his jealousy. And now he was trapped, possibly in a place worse than he'd been. Johnny felt a sob trembling in his throat, and when that oppressive cloud leered closer at it, it broke.  
  
"Leave him alone," the distant voice said piercingly.  
  
  
  
Dr. Kasavin pressed his thin fingers to his temples. He was agitated, both by the boy's escape and by the powerful presence that had accompanied it. He'd been having a lot of time, these past couple days, with that presence, but it had never interfered before. He'd thought it only an astral creature observing things, but suddenly, it had leapt into action, bringing a patient out from under the doctor's nose, and freeing re-called souls. Security had already found four crumpled bodies, vacant of the souls, in the upper bunkrooms. And Dr. Kasavin could feel others leaving. Whatever this creature was, it needed to be isolated, and banished.  
  
"Your friend, Johnny C… the creature that rescued you," Dr. Kasavin continued after a long while. "Who was it?"  
  
"Fuck you," was the weak reply. It was followed by another hollow, sobbing scream.  
  
"I said, leave him alone," Dr. Kasavin said sharply, jabbing a harsh spike of energy at the spirit circling Johnny. It shrieked and retreated. The doctor wasn't even sure that Johnny knew what had rescued him, and if he did, it was doubtful he knew anything helpful. Dr. Kasavin already knew it was a unicorn. A creature of purity and balance… no wonder it was trying to free the souls from their old selves.  
  
With a sigh he turned to look at his patient. Johnny was lying on a cold metal table, his arms bound at his sides and his legs strapped in securely. Nothing else held him but the dark energy that was in a cloud over his form. Dr. Kasavin sighed. He was not angry with the boy. No, he was beyond anger… he only knew the cold certainty that this unicorn, whoever it was, needed to be gotten rid of. Frankly, he didn't know how that would be accomplished, but a small group of the other doctors were working full time to contact and request aid of more powerful astral entities than the ones commonly used here. This was a dangerous thing to do, for it attracted their attention, and most of them refused to help. The doctors had decided against trying to bind or control a powerful entity… the risks were too great should it ever get loose. One of them, a younger one, had suggested spelling a dragon to help them, but the others had met that with harsh retort, and the young doctor's privileges had been revoked. Dragons were too powerful.  
  
And so, it remained that the doctors would have to do the major act of the banishing by themselves. Tomorrow the exact time and place would be set; they would let Dr. Kasavin know, and the banishing ritual could commence.  
  
Until then, the experiments would have to be put on hold… including all of the fascinating things that Dr. Kasavin wanted to do to his young man here. 


	3. The Soul Project - The Exorcism

Pine found Johnny in a bad state. He was alone, strapped to a steel table in a large room. The ceiling was high and arched, and white, glaring lights spilled across the floor from wall fixtures. None of the robed 'doctors' were in here; they'd all gone to a secret meeting in one of the towers. Pine had dropped by to see what they were up to, and it hadn't surprised him to learn that they intended to banish him. Well, banishment was unavoidable if done well, but Pine wouldn't give up. He'd keep trying to come back, and unless they set up an energy ward to keep him out, he could easily return. And even so, there were ways around those.  
  
Pine stretched his neck out, touching his velvety muzzle to the human's pallid, sickly cheek. Rarely did the unicorn become physically tangible, but he could project over onto the physical plane enough to do so if he wished. Along with the touch, he sent a questing tendril of healing energy into Nny's mind.  
  
  
  
Johnny woke up screaming. Panic and agony pounded at his brain, and coupled with the violent flames of several other emotions; it threatened to consume him. It might've, had that oppressive cloud of… whatever it was, still been there, or if a soft warm blanket hadn't been lain over him just then… as he became a bit more coherent, Johnny lifted his head to look down at himself; there was no blanket. But he did see the unicorn; standing next to the table he was strapped to. The warm and soothing feeling was coming from him, not a blanket.  
  
"Hi there," Johnny said, his voice catching on a raw throat. "I've seen the giant puffly monkeys…" Wisely, Pine ignored the comment, and put another 'blanket' over his charge, who passed out within another minute.  
  
  
  
When Johnny awoke again, he felt a lot better. Things were sharper, more tangible, and his perception didn't seem clouded by any influx of negative energy, or any other kind of energy for that matter. And, he was no longer strapped down. Sliding off the metal table, Nny cast his gaze around the room, but saw no hint of Pine. This was a terrible room, Nny decided, looking apprehensively up to the ceiling. It was the same arched stone ceiling, with the steel bolts at crucial architectural points, but at least it was no longer so vicious to his eye. Alarms no longer sounded through the walls, but Johnny had no idea how long it had been since the pain and shock had become too overwhelming to stay conscious in. It was so very quiet… as if the guards, the robed freaks, and the rest of the prisoners had all dissolved into ashes and been blown away quietly by the icy wind. Leaving Nny here, alone. Even Pine had disappeared… no; there he was, across the castle, his hooves beating soundlessly on the stone floors as he charged from room to room, freeing any re-claimed soul he touched upon.  
  
Nny wondered, how he had happened to know that.  
  
  
  
"This evening," said Denise Jackson. "And at the only place we have for such important things." The middle-aged woman gazed at each of the doctors at the meeting in turn. Her own long black robe shifted as she crossed one leg over the other to lean back in her chair. "It's essential to this project that as little as possible go wrong. A unicorn interfering with the displaced souls is something going wrong, and extremely so. We have to get rid of this creature, and an exorcism is the only way. It will be this evening at five o' clock. Everyone be there. Meeting adjourned." Gaunt robed figures stood and filed out of the room, taking their silent, cold ways down the spiraled stairs and off to their current projects. It was 3:30 now.  
  
When Dr. Kasavin returned to the room where he'd left Johnny unconscious, lashed to the table, he was not surprised to see his patient gone once again. No matter, he couldn't get out, and soon that unicorn wouldn't be around for them to have to deal with.  
  
  
  
"They're going to exorcise me," Pine said. He stood under the eave of a walkway, his head held down low, next to Johnny's. Johnny sat against the wall, his knees pulled up against his chest, staring at his boot-tops.  
  
"You mean like a demon?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
Johnny pictured the tall robed figures standing in a circle and chanting, "The power of Christ compels you!" over and over again. He grinned, a manic, toothy grin, and then gave a shaky sigh as he ran a thin hand through his tangled hair. His insides felt like they'd fallen to pieces… bouts of shuddering struck him unexpectedly every few minutes, even after the warmth Pine gave him against the cold winds. His muscles were limp with weariness, and at the same time he was too nervous to relax. Somehow, Nny knew that the 'doctors' would not be calling on any godly power to get rid of Pine. Not a unicorn. They'd have to use something ugly and evil for that.  
  
"Not necessarily. Energy has no good-or-evil nature of its own; it is given such by its user and its user's intentions."  
  
Well, perhaps. Johnny didn't really understand and he figured it was pointless to try.  
  
"It's never pointless to try."  
  
"Are you reading my mind?"  
  
"I'm saying what I feel you need to hear."  
  
Nny sighed, wrapping his bony arms around his legs tightly. Though usually, such an invasion of his privacy would have flung him into a rage, he found he didn't care if the unicorn knew every secret thought he had. He knew Pine wouldn't judge him on any of it. Unicorns were like that. And people keep things private because they're afraid of being judged, aren't they? Johnny found himself wishing that the world was populated with unicorns instead of humans, and he felt the sense of Pine's amusement at that thought. Yes, it definitely would be nicer…  
  
Another thought occurred to Nny that frightened him: if Pine were exorcised, he would be unable to come back, and Johnny would be left alone… alone to deal with the robed doctors and their crazy experiments with souls. A cold feeling sank into his gut at this realization, and his grip around his arms tightened, whitening his knuckles and probably causing fair sized bruises.  
  
"Don't worry."  
  
"Don't worry," hissed Johnny, distantly surprised at the venom in his own tone. "You're a phantasm. They can't touch you. They can lock you out, but then you're safe, you're free, and where am I?" Johnny's voice rose, and his eyes dilated slightly. His tone pitched towards hysteria as he continued. "Trapped here, goddamn it, you don't know what it's like to have to be trapped, in this limited body that requires me to use up so much of my time and energy taking care of it! And then something like this, there is no way out! Even death is not a way out in this place!" Fear and desolation was not just edging at his mind now; it was rushing through, hazing his decisions and his thoughts. The overwhelming despair that comes with the knowledge that you can't escape was not new to him, but it somehow managed to hit him deeply every time it came.  
  
"You don't know… what it's like…" he finally managed, his voice low now and thick with hopeless tears.  
  
"Yes I do. I have lived my time as a physical creature, I have lived as many things. You will too. You already have, and you will live as many more."  
  
"Not with these creeps playing around with the souls of everyone they kill," Nny swallowed down the sobs that wanted to come, and swiftly wiped away the tears that had trickled down his cheeks. The idea of reincarnation wasn't something Johnny had ever thought about, anyway, and if it were true, what on earth had happened to him that time he'd dreamed… or was it a dream? Nny shook his head; it made his pitiable mind ache trying to puzzle these things out.  
  
"I know."  
  
"So what about this not worrying?" Johnny's voice held more control now, and he rested his chin on his arms. "Don't I have cause to worry?"  
  
"Yes. But I will help you."  
  
"You're going to be exorcised."  
  
"There are ways around that."  
  
"I hope you're right…" Nny's voice took on a bitter nuance and he sighed, deeply. Better, he supposed, to just accept whatever fate might be coming to him. They could not keep his soul imprisoned to their will forever.  
  
  
  
Pine knew when the group of doctors had gathered in the ornate room in the center of the castle. Buried beneath three floors, and laced with candles and incense, the room held them in its isolated, mystical grip as they stood silently together, using only the power of their minds to draw up a circle and begin to focus energy, building it up inside the circle.  
  
He knew easily what they were doing, exactly, and where they were. He did not try to resist it when they sent the energy out to find him. He felt it surround him, pushing at him in a way that was as corporeal as energy could get. It was then that he rose up to fight it. He did a very good job, using his own power to fend off the insistent energy that tried to drive him back and out. He cast off the ropes of power that sought to entwine him, twisting his own energy like a whirling dervish. But it kept coming; the doctors kept up their chants, kept building the energy, and sending it out, and eventually, Pine was overcome. He stopped resisting so that he would have a last look at the face of the human he'd taken charge of. Johnny couldn't see what was happening, and from what Pine could tell from that last brief contact, he couldn't feel it either. And then the unicorn was gone, back into his own world on the astral plane.  
  
  
  
Johnny knew when Pine began to fight the exorcism; the unicorn had faded from perception, and otherwise Nny didn't know what had gone on. But when Pine was really and truly gone from the physical plane, Johnny knew it, by the cold that came from the castle around him, from the chill northern wind outside, from the unnatural magick practiced by the freakish doctors. He hadn't been so cold since Pine had been here. Sitting under the walkway, he shuddered, his muscles tensing and relaxing spasmodically until he was a shaken mess of ragged nerves. He wanted to hide, and he hoped desperately that they wouldn't find him huddled under here.  
  
But he knew it was futile, even before he heard the echoing thud of boots approaching him. 


	4. The Soul Project - The Offer

He was left alone in his cell after they found him. After all the trouble Pine had supposedly been causing, Johnny hadn't thought they would leave him alone… but then again; Pine was gone now. Cast far away. Nny felt a sickening feeling creep into his gut… when they decided to come back for him, he would be at their mercy. Totally. Hate rose inside of him, coupled with frustration at his own helplessness.  
  
"You don't have to be," a voice whispered at his side. Nny jumped, stumbling to his feet from the hard bench he'd been sitting on.  
  
"Don't have to be what," he snarled, not even phrasing it as a question. He longed for his knife, but even as he did he knew it would be useless against… whatever this thing was. It felt like that cloud again, closing in on him. Johnny's breath quickened involuntarily, as he sought to escape the overbearing presence.  
  
It seemed to want to only circle him, and he could see its leering grin and shining eyes. Not with his own eyes, but somehow, he could still see it, and there wasn't any way to make it leave. It just closed in, its cold aura freezing the already drafty winds that whipped into the cell. Panic began to clog Johnny's mind, the ugly presence of the being seeping into his awareness in a way he did not like at all. And then, it spoke.  
  
"Johnny," it said. "You know what they are, don't you? They're not a bunch of selfish bastards… you know that. They're what you want to be. They're cold… they're machines. They have power and they don't have anything in the way."  
  
Nny said nothing… he just wanted the thing to go away. To leave him to his own misery, and not add its own. He tried not to feel, it was true, but the fear that was knotted in a lump inside of him slowly began to boil into rage. How dare these things… he did not feel he owed them any respect, none at all. The lust to kill was pumping through his veins, and he could not figure out anyway to channel or express it. Against an intangible being? What could he do? Sit there and stew and that was about it, so he figured.  
  
"Get the hell out of here... now," Johnny hissed at the creature, detesting it, and hating it with all his might. He willed it to be gone, he willed it to die, he willed it to be a lot of adverse things. And then it was gone. Nny stood there, warily, shivering in the cold breeze as he felt his rage simmer down and drain away. The presence did not return, and Johnny collapsed onto the bench with a bleak sigh.  
  
  
  
How well in place were they? Was it enough? Dr. Kasavin had his eyes tightly shut, to feel rather than see, to be rather than live. Walls of energy, erected around the entire castle, flowed and pulsed with a psychically visible light. It was not a white light, but a deep, solid mix of red and black. That would fight off any entrance from astral beings… particularly that unicorn.  
  
Time and experiments had been lost because of that unicorn. And in no small amount. The project would have to wait at least two more years, now, before being introduced to the public. The original speculation of the directors' board had been nineteen months from this week, but that also had counted on everything going smoothly.  
  
But the doctors' minds were not on revenge. They were on efficiency; doing whatever was needed to keep things from interfering, but never did they go out of their way to punish anyone. Things merely needed to be kept under control.  
  
There was only one problem with this new ward… it would prevent other astral beings from wandering in to watch, and possibly deciding to help. They had need of the aid of such creatures, in some cases, both to hold energy in place and help to harness it. Many of them were very old and had lifetimes of practice in such things, so could hold things much more securely than the human doctors could. These beings were essential to their practice, and without them, things would go even slower.  
  
Dr. Kasavin and the others would have to project onto the astral to find them. A strong shield along with them would allow only who they chose to follow them back. That was a lot of wasted time to spend in the astral looking for ideal candidates. Really, the unicorn had slowed down this project by forcing them to cut off their resources.  
  
He finished carefully checking every strand and corner of the ward, and he could feel the minds of the other doctors checking as well. Finally, when he was satisfied with its status, he withdrew and opened his eyes. They nearly closed again in a red haze. Good thing he was sitting down… he was exhausted. It had been a long, hard spell, setting up that ward, and it would have to be renewed every few days, ideally. The unicorn was too powerful to take chances with; they'd all felt it.  
  
For now, Dr. Kasavin closed his eyes to rest… he'd go back to work on that patient of his later.  
  
  
  
When he awoke, Nny couldn't feel his limbs. It was very nice, for a short moment, the chill sharpened his mind and dulled his body. But then the tingling started, when he tried to move, and he groaned as he sat up. It was much too cold in here… he was definitely going to be losing some extremities if this kept up. His mind strayed to the creature that had come to pester him, and he shivered. Tucking both hands between his knees to try and warm them, Johnny hunched over on the bench and tried not to think.  
  
Within a few minutes, he felt the presence returning, but he could not find the energy to push it away again. He wasn't even sure how it had happened the first time. Despair clutched at him this time; he'd never be rid of these things…  
  
"Go away," he said weakly, shocked to hear how pathetic his own voice sounded.  
  
"But Johnny," the voice whispered, as the presence closed in around him. Nny winced and drew back against the stone wall. "You're doing so well! You don't need that unicorn, you see?"  
  
"Go away," he repeated, though his voice wavered and the command ended up having very little force behind it. The creature closed in even more, and Johnny felt another desperate scream working its way up from his lungs. He managed to hold onto it, shaking with the effort.  
  
"I can teach you. You can be like them."  
  
"Go away…" Johnny's voice shook noticeably, desperation in his eyes.  
  
"No, don't let those emotions take you over, dear boy. Focus. Focus on getting rid of me, if you want, but I'd suggest you focus on… more important things…" The creature moved still closer, the oppressiveness of its aura clamping down on the human that cowered in front of it.  
  
I can't focus, Johnny thought to himself. Not with this… thing… here…  
  
  
  
Dr. Kasavin woke to the eager flittings of one of his familiars. The creature slid around the room, its shining gaze and ugly grin pushing its way into the doctor's mind in its excitement.  
  
He felt only a little more rested… he'd have to sleep tonight. Dr. Kasavin turned his attention to the creature. "What is it?" he said, his tone completely devoid of emotion.  
  
"Your patient, Anth, your patient," cackled the creature, its energy twisting and bobbing up and down. "He can be one of you. He wants to be. I know he does. And he has it! He can be it!"  
  
Dr. Kasavin stared for a long moment at the creature. Unlike a human in the same situation, the familiar's enthusiasm did not diminish and it did not become self-conscious. It simply waited, bouncing, that leering grin flashing in the doctor's mind. Dr. Kasavin did not know if he completely trusted the being's knowledge of his patient's desires; he himself could not know them unless he knew the person in question very well.  
  
Finally he sighed, dropping one emaciated hand onto the arm of his chair. "Fine," he said quietly. "I'm going to sleep tonight… do what you want with the boy, just don't torture him too much." The familiar grinned in assent, and Dr. Kasavin felt its energy dashing eagerly down the hall. Walking over to the bed in the corner, the doctor lay down and immediately drifted into a deep sleep.  
  
  
  
Jason Cross stood outside the cell door, looking in at the man that sat hunched over on the bench. Even the guards had felt the power that was being erected around the castle, and it was making them nervous. What were the doctors trying to do now? Jason glanced downwards at the wool blanket that he held over one arm. He wasn't supposed to… but, perhaps the doctors had only forgotten, since most of them were resting now, after whatever ritual they'd done. If they were going to leave this man… Johnny… alone in here for so long, they had to at least provide for him. It wouldn't do them any good to find a frozen corpse in the morning, would it?  
  
Finally coming to something of a justification of his actions, Jason thrust the blanket through the bars of the door, watching it fall to the floor. "Use this," he said. "It's cold out tonight." With that, Jason turned and walked off down the hall, listening to the loud pounding of his own boots against the stone floor.  
  
  
  
Johnny did not look up upon hearing the boots approach and stop outside of his cell. He was quite beyond caring what they did to him… he knew he couldn't stop it, he knew there was no way to avoid it. He'd sunk so low; now, into despair that he didn't even feel like he could fight it. This was not an unfamiliar feeling. Nny had spent most of his remembered life trying to salvage what was left of him after that… wall thing… had… well, whatever it had done to him. Even now, he wasn't quite sure. Sometimes he worried that it was still there; that it was still manipulating him. And what had he been told?  
  
"You've no place here, as you belong to something else." Or had that all been a dream? Frustration gnawed at Nny's mind. What the hell was it that he belonged to? Did it have something to do with that thing behind the wall? That demon had owned him, for a while… he thought he was free of it, but he realized that he really had no way to be sure.  
  
Think of it, he said to himself mockingly. Wouldn't it be great to have enough power to be sure… to be set… to know if something like that was there and be able to get rid of it.  
  
The soft sound of cloth dropping to the floor got his attention, and he looked up to see a woolen blanket lying in a heap there. Nny got to his feet, swaying and nearly falling over from the sudden motion. Shivering with cold, he reached out, grabbed the blanket, and pulled it tightly around his thin body. Much better… they must be planning to keep him here for a bit longer, if they were supplying him.  
  
  
  
Pine stood tall among the waving grass, scenting along the colorful light and energy that drifted past him every which way. The astral realm could often look like the physical one, but it was less… constant. The unicorn had been hanging around the vicinity he knew the castle to be in, but he could not get back there. He didn't even know exactly where to find it. Usually, just envisioning a place would allow him to project there, but it was not working now. Because of the ward they'd set.  
  
But there was something else here now. Something ugly. Something so cold, and yet so powerful, that should it get a hold of you, you had better hope… well, that for some reason it might relent. Even Pine was fearful, when he felt that presence on the wind. It almost seemed like it, too, was circling the castle. He sensed an easiness about it. The feeling that it could break through that ward whenever it wanted to; and was only holding off now because it so pleased.  
  
  
  
Johnny's shivering finally ceased, as he sat curled on the wooden bench, wrapped tightly in the wool blanket. He felt the illusion of safety, for a moment, at least until he felt the oppressive cloud move back into his cell…  
  
"Get out of here!" he nearly shouted. He would've jumped up, but his legs were still too numb, so he drew back on the bench instead. "Goddamn it! I can't be free from anything can I?" The oppressive cloud seemed to falter, and Johnny, wild-eyed, kept up the attack. "You fucking bastard! Sniveling around after the first hapless soul that comes into this god- forsaken castle of yours; just trying to make me miserable, to feed some depraved little need of your own!" The urge to leap at the thing, tear it to pieces with his bare hands, was very strong, but he struggled to force it down. There was no doing that to this being. But when he calmed slightly, he noticed it was gone. Johnny sighed deeply. Thank god that still worked…  
  
"DAMNIT!" he screamed suddenly, leaping to his feet. "FUCK OFF!" His rage was met only with a delighted cackle.  
  
Dr. Kasavin rose before the sun did, and immediately, he checked the ward. A couple other doctors were already checking it, and reinforcing it a bit, so he left it alone and went to get breakfast; a small pill. It was high- energy stuff, supplemented by IVs when needed. Finishing that, Dr. Kasavin sent for Jason Cross.  
  
The doctor noted that the security guard in question paused at the door to his room, steeling himself before pushing it open and stepping in. Dr. Kasavin frowned. What had he been up to? The signals told him nothing drastically wrong, just a minor thing that the guard felt nervous about.  
  
"Jason Cross," the doctor said. Jason looked up at him and nodded in acknowledgement. "Bring Johnny to me." The guard quickly left, and Dr. Kasavin sank back into his chair. He felt something amiss… though he wasn't sure what. He remembered allowing the familiar to deal with Johnny last night… would he regret it? He didn't think the creature could do too much, and indeed he could tell, from its storm-cloud ball of energy that circled the room, that it had not done anything it was too pleased with.  
  
When Johnny entered with Jason, every nerve of Dr. Kasavin's went alert, and he sat straight up in his seat. Giving the guard a steely-eyed glance to send him off, the doctor turned his full attention to the boy in front of him. Johnny stood just inside the door, his thin frame tense, his fiery gaze defiant. The creature stayed well away from him, cowering near the back wall.  
  
"My, what happened to you?" Dr. Kasavin attempted to inject some kindness into his cold voice, but it didn't work very well; it came out more mocking than anything else. And Johnny obviously thought so too, the way his eyes blazed. But the boy didn't speak, so Dr. Kasavin reached out with a hand of power to pull over him.  
  
He was quite surprised by the violent counterattack that Johnny hit him with. It was nothing he couldn't deal with, of course, but that one spear of hateful energy, aimed straight for the doctor's own, was pure and solid in its passion. What on earth had that familiar been doing? But one psychic glance at the creature told the doctor that the creature had had nothing to do with Johnny's current state of mind. A wide smile stretched across the doctor's face.  
  
"Attempting to fulfill what your friend could not? Holding up his pure legacy?" Dr. Kasavin stood slowly and walked towards Johnny, who reflexively backed up a step. "Fighting me, are we?" His voice dropped to a low croon as he continued forward. Fear was visible on the boy's face now. Good.  
  
"The unicorn is gone." Dr. Kasavin's voice turned to something resembling a hiss, like water poured over red-hot coals. "He can't help you anymore. You are a weak, pathetic, human."  
  
"Just like you," Johnny growled, and mingled with the fear on his face was contempt and loathing.  
  
"Oh no, my dear boy…I have gone beyond. I'm not like those others that you can push around. How does it feel to be helpless, hmm?"  
  
"It's nothing new," the boy snapped in return. Dr. Kasavin felt another slash of energy aimed his way, and he deftly blocked and dissipated it. He leaned down so that his face was mere inches from his patient's.  
  
"I'm glad you're used to it," the doctor said, his voice dripping with derision.  
  
  
  
Johnny had to fight to keep himself calm. Stay focused, stay under control, keep a handle on the situation and everything around you… but it was amazing how hard it was, when faced with the situation. It was plain to see that the attacks he was throwing at this man were being resisted easily. That was discouraging, but the surety of the doctor was even worse. He was right; he did know more… he knew what he was doing…  
  
No, don't think like that, Johnny told himself. You could do it now. You could bring that knife up, right through his stomach, before he has time to move. He can't stop a physical attack with those psychic mind powers, can he? You don't have a knife, imbecile.  
  
But it was too much to take when the doctor leaned down into his face. Johnny felt crowded, overwhelmed, like he was being suffocated by the very energy and presence of the robed bastard. Anger and frustration hit him again, dissolving his concentration. These humans had done it. They'd done what Nny wanted to do… but how? No time for that now. Johnny spun, driving his elbow into the doctor's gut and darting out from between him and the door.  
  
Though the man took the hit, he recovered very quickly, and as Johnny turned his head for one moment, he found himself caught in a suffocating cloud more horribly intense than the last, and it was then that he screamed. No… he was caught again, he was at the mercy of these freaks once more… why had they had to banish Pine. No matter what, Nny thought with what little coherent thought he still retained, he'd never be able to hold off this kind of attack. Goddamn it…  
  
He felt his consciousness fading, and he tried to cling to it, but it slipped like water from his grasp. He remembered thinking that it was all over now. 


	5. The Soul Project - The Return

Pine slammed a spear of energy at the ward, driving it with his hooves. He kicked and slashed, using every iota of strength and energy at his command, but still the ward resisted, holding him out. A direct attack on the shield was doing him no good; he'd have to be more subtle.  
  
He felt the pain of a soul in there, where he wasn't allowed. They were doing wrong; they were doing things that were unnatural. Many humans assumed that good had more power and would prevail, but it was not the case. Power was power, and while a balance and order of things existed, it could be superseded by enough power. Most individuals had extreme power; a group had ten times that. That was why he could not break through alone… not through a ward that had been created and was being maintained by a large group of powerful individuals. With all of their energy feeding into it, it was nearly impenetrable.  
  
Pine needed help. There was nothing else to it. Giving the huge, cold well of power that circled the ward a wide berth, Pine galloped across the rolling hills of his section of astral plane. There were many creatures here, but were there any that would be willing to help? The unicorn sent out his plea on a wide scale, requesting assistance, but he didn't receive any offers. As he passed through the summer of the astral, dryads playing in the oak trees waved playfully to him, but they stayed in their trees.  
  
Small gnomes pattering across the leaves of early fall greeted him, but did not say a thing about his request. Unseen spirits floating through the dark forests and swamps simply gazed at the unicorn with glowing eyes. A tall, pale autumn spirit, one who had been an acquaintance of Pine's for some years now, traveled with him for a bit, but then departed as Pine left his realm.  
  
There were others to ask, of course… there were the powerful and hate- filled demon-like creatures that lived off of pain and misery, but Pine knew they would not help him. There were the more revered personas; deities, and Pine thought he might get help from them… as often as not they had the welfare of balance and life in mind. There were the thought-forms, the bogeys, the high court fae, the dragons, the guardian spirits; there were other unicorns…  
  
And in his search, he stumbled across something he hadn't expected--- it was one of the doctors. Striding along through one of the forested swamps was one of those doctors, projecting into the astral to try and find spirits to help them, no doubt. Pine quickly slipped into the crowd of beings in the woods, hoping to remain unnoticed until the doctor withdrew.  
  
And when the man did, Pine followed him. He followed the projection through a convoluted path, falling down, down… Pine threw his mind outward, his own projection carefully tracking the doctor back down into the castle.  
  
Success. Pine looked around. The doctor had brought back a couple of rather weak elementals, and had apparently assigned them the task of creating a third. They huddled together in one corner, a soft glow of energy growing between outstretched 'hands' from both of them. They fed that glow, ignoring Pine, who silently slipped from the room and rushed through the castle. He was inside, now, but he figured he'd better keep a low profile so that he was not exorcised again. And still, through the ward, he could feel that cold presence… watching.  
  
  
  
"You see… we're trying out this new procedure," Dr. Kasavin said, as he hooked up the IV syringe, tested it, and turned to smile at his patient, who was again strapped to the table. Johnny had his eyes screwed tightly shut, and his head was turned to one side, away from the glaring lights and the doctor.  
  
There was little reason to explain the process to the patient but Dr. Kasavin felt that if Johnny knew what was happening, his added thought of the process would aid it to a small extent.  
  
"Sometimes… as you may well know…" Dr. Kasavin stepped closer to the boy, a tight smile on his face. "We will be asked to resurrect someone longer dead. It is hard to do. As you may also know, the soul leaves the body upon death. It is as often as not that it is reincarnated into a new life and consciousness. Now how to recall a soul when it is already installed in that new consciousness? It's very hard to do, I assure you. This…" Dr. Kasavin paused to hold up the syringe, reaching out a gaunt hand to touch the patient's shoulder. Johnny flinched visibly.  
  
"To do this, it becomes necessary to find the imbedded soul. And to find a way to release it back into its former self. Of course, you could kill the new body, but that wouldn't go over well, now would it?" Dr. Kasavin smiled. "We're testing out a new way to take care of that. To get the soul back. Especially if the new consciousness is still young, it shouldn't be too hard."  
  
"You're backing yourself in deep," snapped Johnny weakly. "You'll lose something, somewhere, and it won't work…"  
  
"I don't think so, my boy," Dr. Kasavin said, and he stepped up to Johnny, priming the syringe. The patient shuddered, perhaps feeling the approach of energy that the doctor was getting ready to do this with.  
  
"Your… demon-thing," Johnny said, just as Dr. Kasavin was lowering the syringe. "It told me that you had lost your humanity. It was wrong though, wasn't it?" Johnny's voice dropped into disgust. "You still care about money. About siphoning off half the income of this fat, arrogant, over-stuffed human society."  
  
"It's not just that," Dr. Kasavin said softly, and he pushed the needle into Nny's arm.  
  
  
  
Pine quickly located what he knew to be Johnny's specific soul pattern, and he reeled with the feelings accompanying it. The usual roiling negativity, yes, but this time it was accompanied by a strange, screaming agony that felt like one's vitals being sucked violently out of the most inner part of one's being. So much for keeping a low profile.  
  
Pine didn't even have time to take a look at what was going on when he burst into the room. Alls he saw that was important to him was the pale figure of Johnny on the table, writhing, and above that, a sharper, more deeply intense version of who he was, and that was what was screaming. The doctor stood there, his power flowing freely, and with him was a machine that thrummed with a giant magnet. The unicorn didn't lose any time.  
  
  
  
Dr. Kasavin struggled to concentrate, to aim and send his power towards the goal of wresting the unwilling soul from the body. It was a hard thing to do, harder than recalling a still-loose soul to an old body. Most of the former experiments, having to do with killing the patients and then re- calling their souls, had helped the doctors learn quite a bit. It was time for the next stage… first, make it work, then find out how to hide it from the public. The magnetic fluid that pumped into the human through the IV reacted to the giant magnet, creating a pull of energy that aided the doctor's attempt to yank the soul out of the body. Sweat covered his body, soaking the robe he wore, as he strained and concentrated. Eventually, they'd have to learn how to do this over a distance, and without the magnetic fluid. This soul was really resisting… but then, they all did. Dr. Kasavin thought he felt it tied to something, something ugly and cold, high above and beyond the ward, but he did not have the attention for it now. That was required by the task in front of him.  
  
And suddenly, Dr. Kasavin felt himself hurled backwards, and his concentration broke. He felt the soul coated in a net of power not his own, before a familiar whirling energy clouded his psychic sight and left him virtually helpless. It lasted for several seconds, and then was gone as abruptly as it had arrived. Dr. Kasavin slowly stood. The table was empty, and Johnny was gone again. The unicorn… it was back.  
  
  
  
Pine didn't know, really, if he'd done a good enough patch-up job. Having your soul nearly forced out of your body was a terrible ordeal, and very few recovered. There were a lot of things that could go wrong. The body often shut down if the soul was forced out, and starting it back up successfully could be tricky. Memory and knowledge might be affected, and the state of the physical body might drop badly.  
  
Johnny seemed reasonably all right, though. Pine stood with him again under the walkway, gazing down at the human's limp body. There was one major asset a unicorn possessed, and that was the ability to heal. Had Pine been any worse in that field Johnny probably would not have lived. Still, Pine continued covering the human over with layer after layer of healing energy. Nny's mind, especially, was already a warped mess; he did not need it any worse.  
  
Johnny awoke, finally, though he was never aware of having been unconscious. It was just one long, ugly moment of intense pain. The intense pain seeped away, when he woke, but he didn't notice that at first. He tried to scream, but found himself silent. Sharp spikes of pain lanced through his back, chest, and head every time he moved, and there was an ugly feeling deep inside... like he was torn open, and exposed, in a way that could not heal.  
  
"Pine… what?" Johnny winced as he reached a hand out and found the soft muzzle of the unicorn. Suddenly, he began to shake, as the shock of the experience set in. His muscles quivered, and though the movement sent lances of pain through his body, he was powerless to stop it. The unicorn swiftly bent his head, and Johnny felt the tip of the being's horn against his forehead. His muscles relaxed, and the shivering stopped.  
  
"Pine… take me home. Or something. Get me out of here…"  
  
"I can't leave. I have to bring this out and stop it."  
  
Johnny sighed deeply, curling up on the stone and covering his face in his hands. It was selfish to ask that, sure, but his pain and fear was quite intense enough to warrant it. Nny usually asked nothing of anyone, except to be left alone… and that right was being violated penetratingly here. At least, Pine was taking the time to keep the stupid bastards here from doing things too terrible… but they'd almost succeeded, this time. Even the memory of the excruciating pain made him tremble, and he looked up at the unicorn, feeling grateful to someone else for the first time in… a very long time.  
  
But Pine was not watching him. He stood still, gazing outwards somewhere. His warm eyes sparked and flashed every few seconds, and the rigid way he stood… it almost looked like he was confronting something. His presence started to fade, and Johnny sat up suddenly, but doubled over again in pain. Not even a unicorn; a 'perfect' being? Not even that was trustworthy. Unfortunately, Nny was in no state to take care of himself at the moment, and if Pine left for some reason, he'd most certainly be doomed back into the clutches of the 'doctors'.  
  
But when Johnny's thoughts quelled and then fell silent, he just gazed at Pine, and he almost felt… something there. Like there were soft strands of some material running through and around the unicorn, and through to… somewhere… Nny's brow furrowed as he attempted to follow the strands with his mind, but as he did, he touched on something he did not like at all. Something familiar, and it seemed to sneer at him the moment he touched it. He'd never been able to before, but all of a sudden he could feel its taint in his mind. Could feel the wide gaps in memory, the foreign feelings that he had been unable to recognize, before, as not his own… all of this had the stink of that presence.  
  
He'd fought it, for a long time. And then he had thought it had been gone, but apparently, he still had some connection to it… else why this continued confusion of events? This continued insanity and memory loss? And the bad energy that followed him everywhere? And now he could feel it, really know it was there, not just be able to deduce it from the circumstances. It was still there; it still had its dirty claws hooked into his brain. Looking over at the fading unicorn, Johnny felt a surge of anger and distrust and knew it didn't come from his own mind. Of course.  
  
Johnny's eyes narrowed and he carefully tried to sit up again, leaning heavily against the wall. That… thing wouldn't want Nny to hang out with a unicorn; Pine had proved his power and probably could fight it off. Or could he? He thought Pine was doing that now, fighting with the thing in Nny's mind… and he didn't look very successful.  
  
Though he didn't know how, Johnny tried to hang onto the unicorn's presence. If he left again, Nny would be alone with these insane bastards and he didn't know how lucky he would be the second… or was it the third or fourth… time.  
  
It must've worked, or something else had happened, for Pine solidified again and turned back to the human. Looking into his eyes Johnny felt that same resentment and anger, but he could tell that although it was fueled and encouraged by the thing in his mind, it was his own feeling. A unicorn is perfect, Nny thought viciously to himself. What am I? Human. Those doctors, they've done it, they've escaped the superfluous needs and desires of the human being… no; no they haven't. Wouldn't it be nice? To be able to cast off those unwanted urges, to be able to use the power of your mind anyway you so chose without the emotions and needs of your body distracting you and getting in your way?  
  
This thing, in his mind… it could help him be that way. It could help to erase those urges like it had hidden his memories; it could help him be cold… no! Nny shook his head violently and nearly fell over again from his sitting position. A sharp pain rang through his skull and he groaned, pressing his hands tightly to the sides of his head. These were not his own thoughts. They were that creature's.  
  
"Johnny," said Pine, and that voice, so pure and gentle compared to the ugly ones swimming around Nny's head. He felt that resentment again, felt the thing in his mind fueling the anger almost enthusiastically. Of course it wanted him to hate the unicorn. Things would go much easier for it if he did.  
  
"There is nothing of me for you to hate, Johnny," the unicorn said. Damn beast! Trying to get on his good side… just trying to make him feel worse about what he had to be.  
  
"We'll be good on our own, Johnny," another voice whispered to him. "You don't need this ideal following you around. Be who you are and what you can be within that, don't let paragons bring you down." No! Nny bit down a yell that rose in his throat. He tried to think, to insist to himself that the thing was wrong… he'd felt Pine was good and that Pine wanted to help him, that was plenty enough! You're deluding yourself, Nny…  
  
  
  
Pine, instead of reassuring his charge directly, through his mind, found he had to keep most of his attention on the pocket of negativity outside the ward. It was coming in, and that ward was not stopping it. Slowing its progress, yes, but certainly not stopping it. So Pine threw his own energy into the ward, pushing back the creature, attempting to keep its prying tentacles from reaching farther into his human's mind. Unfortunately, he could not stop it much better than the ward could.  
  
Pine felt Johnny's own thoughts warring with the thing's. Indeed, it was trying to turn him against the unicorn, and Pine was afraid it might succeed. But even in fighting to keep the thing behind the ward and away from his charge, tendrils of it were still leaking through… over the link with Johnny's mind. 


	6. The Soul Project - The Loser

Johnny opened his eyes. Pine was gone. The warmth of his presence had disappeared again, leaving nothing but cold space and that terrible feeling of vulnerability. The chill wind swept along the stone walkways, peering into every crack and corner and probing with its cold fingers. And still, Nny didn't feel like he could move. He sat half-curled, leaning heavily against the stone wall. His ear was pressed to it, and inside he thought he could hear the pounding of boots. Without Pine, they would find him in an instant. Had they banished the unicorn again?  
  
The cold was intense; so intense that it seemed to have leaked into his mind, nipping at the edges. Although his perception had numbed, Nny was sure that that was the fault of… that creature. And Pine was gone. The damned unicorn had abandoned him, when he could barely move without being wracked with pain, when he was most vulnerable to the attacks of those… doctors…  
  
Bracing himself, willing his injured body and soul to hold together, Johnny struggled to his feet. He pressed hard against the wall, and stood there, shaking, for a long moment before he found himself able to slowly, very slowly, lean away from the supporting surface and balance on his own two feet. He wobbled, nearly falling again, but he managed to catch his balance. Putting a hand out to catch himself caused a rush of red in front of his eyes, but as he stood still it cleared a moment later. Slowly, painfully, he walked out across the stone courtyard. He was able to make it up a short flight of stairs, to the edge of a high patrol walk of the castle. Holding tightly to the top of the low wall, he leaned over.  
  
Stark, frozen ground greeted his eyes, from much too far away. Not only that; the ground was steep, jagged in places, and sloped on a near straight incline into many treacherous valleys and crags. It looked almost like a mountain range, and a very thin layer of snow coated the entire landscape. No escape here. Not in his condition. He drew back from the wall.  
  
"There he is!" he heard a voice shouting from one of the towers above. Johnny looked up, and his dull eyes glazed over. He was doomed; there was nothing more to it… Pine had abandoned him, and he could not defend himself. He fell back onto the stone platform at the top of the stairs, striking the cold rock painfully. His consciousness flickered, but even as the numbness began to creep up his limbs once more, he stayed aware.  
  
  
  
Pine battled. Drawn once more into the astral realm in his vain attempt to keep the demon there, the unicorn fought the thing. It was powerful; so powerful that Pine feared for his victory and even more for his existence. It attacked from all sides; its many facets screamed at him from all around, everywhere he struck it retreated before lunging in from the opposite direction.  
  
The energy that surrounded Pine trembled with fatigue, and still the unicorn struck mercilessly. He used his hooves and his horn to add thrust to his attacks, but though he was managing to keep the thing from laying a claw… or tentacle… or whatever it possessed, on him, he was not hurting it. Somehow he knew that negotiation was not an option. This thing would not bargain. It would torture and destroy, and it would get what it wanted.  
  
Not hurting it, and not pushing it back, either. Alls he was doing was keeping its attention, and he could not do that indefinitely. But Pine could not think what else to do. Perhaps he could give Johnny time to… no. The human was recovering from being torn asunder and could barely think straight. Even without this thing poking into his thoughts.  
  
The unicorn began to back up, and then remembered the ward. He was past it now. It wouldn't let him back either. There was nothing for him to do but keep the demon where it was; where it couldn't hurt Johnny anymore than it already had.  
  
  
  
Nny heard the boots only faintly as they ran across the stone, sending shockwaves of sound and tremor through the ground to jar achingly in Johnny's head. He moaned, very softly, and when they surrounded him, the clatter finally ceasing, he did not hear the clicks of their guns nor their demands that he get to his feet.  
  
Pine? Where are you, damn it…  
  
Johnny yelled in pain as he was wrenched to his feet, and he felt the freezing wind bite, as it whipped through him, stealing tiny bits of his life and warmth with each pass. He didn't feel it when they hoisted his thin frame up and marched him back into the depths of the castle. He didn't feel it when they brought him back into that room, when they strapped him to the table, or when the light shone in his eyes. But he felt it when the doctor's elemental closed in on him, straddling him with its ugly presence, and leering into his mind. Nny struggled to get away from it, but he could not, there was nothing he could do to get rid of it. Not even that mind trick, whatever it had been, that had seemed to chase it off before. He tried to concentrate, but tearing agony in his head and deep inside of his being jarred his thoughts until they were nothing more than a confused scramble; a scramble that tried to scatter and cower in fear from the ugly feelings that were pressing in on him.  
  
And the pain started again. A scream was ripped from Johnny's lungs, and it only hurt worse, but he couldn't stop. The pain kept coming, as did the screams that he could not seem to control.  
  
  
  
It was out! Dr. Kasavin almost shouted in triumph, as his thin hands came to rest, hard, on the lifeless chest of Johnny's body. He kept his eyes closed, attempting to wrap his power around the soul that struggled, now, to be free, fought and screamed as it thrashed within his grip. He managed to hold it, even as his elemental moved in to help. It loomed in on the soul, howling at it, and wrapping its own hold around the doctor's. This soul wasn't going anywhere.  
  
And then, something cold tickled at Dr. Kasavin's mind. He felt his 'grip' numb and weaken, and he felt that coldness infiltrating the soul. Johnny's soul seemed to scream even more, as the icy shadow wrapped around it, yanking it from the grip of the doctor, fudging his and his familiar's minds with clouded void, breaking through the ward, pulling back through it, and disappearing without a trace a moment later.  
  
The soul was gone. The pale, lifeless corpse lay limply on the table, and Dr. Kasavin, staring unblinkingly, slowly moved his hands to unstrap it. Dead bodies didn't go anywhere by themselves.  
  
  
  
Pine stood tall on the crest of a wave of energy. There was not even the semblance of solidity here, just energy that moved and rippled in thousands of colors and sensations. And before the unicorn, maybe off to the side a little, the energy twisted, beginning to roil in an unnatural and ugly way, as it colored darkly. This darker energy formed a swirling abyss in the center of the normal pattern of it. Lines of power criss-crossing along the patterns of energy stopped here, almost like they had been shorted out. Still others diverted well around it.  
  
Pine had lost the battle. That, in itself, was not such a surprising thing; this being, whatever it was and whatever it's purpose, was much more powerful than he himself was. And there was something hungry about it. Something dark. A voracious essence, which no sustenance could satisfy. In its own mind, it must consume everything. It must infect everything, spread its disease until all of existence reeked of its own stink. Would it succeed? Probably not, but that didn't mean it would not take a good chunk of existence with it before it went.  
  
Even now it wanted to spread its ugliness. For that was its essence, negativity. It fed on negative energy. And it fed on it through people like Johnny.  
  
It was Johnny now that Pine could hear screaming. Despite the unicorn's sorrow that the creature had won, he could feel guilt over his inability to protect Nny. Pine knew his own limits, and he never expected to exceed them. He knew what he could do and he did it, and what he could not do he held no shame or self-pity over.  
  
"I'm so sick of it… I hate this, Pine; I'm so fucking sick of it I would puke if I still had guts left to! Goddamned beast, you're so pure and so perfect, just making a laugh of shit like me. Though I suppose I deserve this, don't I? I've done so many horrible things; it was coming to me. With you being here to see me to that end, and rub it in. Fuck you, Pine, and good riddance. All you ever wanted was to keep me here! In the grip of this goddamn THING! So I'll keep living in agony, like the fucking loser I am!" The voice was hysterical, easily so.  
  
It's not true, Johnny, Pine thought, but more to himself than in any form that the tortured soul could hear. Though if Nny were at all capable of logical though, he might realize it, he was not in a state to do so, and Pine would never blame him for it. But there was nothing the unicorn could do now. Pine lifted his muzzle to the swirling energy, turning his head to the dark roiling pit of the creature. Unicorns did not neigh; despite the resemblance to horses they had, but the sound that Pine made was more soulful than a neigh could be. It rang with sorrow and regret, but also of hope, love, and the promise that peace and balance would continue to be fought for. And turning away again, Pine galloped far across the rolling waves and ley lines of energy. 


End file.
